This
is not a review* of this book as much as it is a preview
of this book. I'm going to try something a little different: an
opening video with format critique. Let me know if this is something
that everyone would like to see more of in the future.

*I
read the first four Superman
Chronicles
trade paperbacks (which are compiled in this book in their entirety)
before I was blogging. I do have a treat for you, though: some of my
earliest attempts at reviewing. I used to correspond (as in write
actual letters) to my wife's uncle who is a hardcore comic book
collector living in Florida. He was off the grid in those days, with
no computer at home. So I would type out letters where we would both
critique what we were reading. Luckily I saved all of these files
(except for one; it somehow got corrupted in a crash and is lost
forever). I could post some of these old school reviews sometime if
folks are interested. They aren't as detailed as my modern reviews
are, and they are from 2004-2007. After that I moved my reviews to my Myspace blog and then
moved over here in 2009, bringing those Myspace reviews over here
(check the earliest postings under Back Issues over there on the
sidebar.

So
here goes, the books as I viewed them when they were originally released...

First
off, I love the format in The
Chronicles
line. These are cheap ($14.99 list price) softcovers that collect
Golden Age comics on heavy stock pulp paper in color. These stories
have been available as DC
Archives
for years, but I cannot afford yet another slew of $50 hardcovers, so
these are a great alternative. (EDIT/NOTE:
This was well before my illness/addiction really kicked in. I now
sell blood and organs (sometimes even my own!) to fund this cursed
hobby.)

This
is nowhere near the caliber of The
Batman Chronicles
trade, but was still enjoyable based on historical significance alone.
It is fascinating to watch the evolution of both the character and
the comic book medium in this embryonic era (1938-1939). My knowledge
of Superman is limited to the movies and the Superfriends
cartoon from the late ‘70s, so this was an eye opener.

On
to the stories: These are crude, both in grammar and plotlines, often
rushing in the last page or two to wrap it up due to space and time
constraints. Having said that, these are still more sophisticated in
terms of story and artwork than Timely Comics from that era.

Action
Comics
No. 1: The one that started the whole superhero phenomenon. The
iconic cover image sets the tone for these early tales. Superman’s
uniform is an almost indigo blue in this first appearance, with his
“S” emblem being all yellow, except for the cover and the final
panel. Maybe the fibers of his alien uniform changed colors later on
because of Earth’s sun? Who knows! Superman cannot fly in any of
these issues, instead relying on his “powerful leg muscles to jump
1/8 of a mile”. His super strength and speed are apparent in this
issue, when he takes on… a wife beater. Superman takes on… a wife
beater. Right.
Lois Lane is a bee-yotch in these early issues.

Action
Comics No. 4: This time, it is the shocking story of how Superman drugs and
kidnaps a college football player to take his place in “the big
game” because he has uncovered a plot by the rival team’s coach
to hire thugs as ringers to take out the star players in the game.
Okay!

Action
Comics No. 5: Clark Kent works for The Daily Star, not the Daily Planet, in
these early issues. This issue sees that bee-yotch Lois Lane lie to Clark
Kent and send him on a bogus assignment so that she can steal his
scoop about a dam breaking. The editor wouldn’t send her because
the story was “too important for a girl.” Ah, yes, the
chauvinistic ways of men in the 1930s. I love the cars and fashions
in these stories, and I have to keep it in perspective that these
were
the styles at the time.

Action
Comics No. 6: A crooked businessman pretends to be Superman’s manager so
that he can sell his likeness and make money off of him. Of course
Superman foils this dastardly plot!

Action
Comics No. 7: With his first cover appearance since Issue 1, Superman (with
yellow boots and a yellow S due to printer plate errors and kept for
posterity) saves a circus from closing by going to work for them. No,
really, that is what happened.

Action
Comics No. 8: A crooked fence who hires juvenile delinquents to steal for
him frames one of the boys after he wants more money for his deeds.
Superman uncovers his plot to frame the boy’s three accomplices,
and defends the boys by saying that saying that they’re not
responsible for their actions because of their environment. Hello? Is
he nuts? If these kids were black they would’ve been thrown in the
slammer! So, Superman takes matters into his own hands by kicking
everyone out of the tenements so that he can demolish them. He takes
on the National Guard and tricks the bombers into razing the
neighborhood, thus resulting in shiny new “apartment-projects”
which, ironically enough, will become the same ghetto some 30-40
years later.

Action
Comics No. 9: Some crack detective from Chicago comes into town to catch
Superman and put him on trial for his crimes. These stories all have
a serial, carry over feel to them, which is cool.

Action
Comics No. 10: Superman causes a car accident so that he can be sent to the
slammer. He uncovered prisoner cruelty on the chain gang, and needed
to fix it from the inside. After all, it’s not like he could just
jump over the wall, or break through the wall to get in, right?

Action
Comics No. 11: That crafty Superman! He uncovers a plot by crooked
stockbrokers to swindle shareholders with an oil well that has never
spit out a drop of oil. So, he wears a hat to conceal his identity
and becomes Homer Ramsey! He breaks into the offices of the crooks,
and rifles through their files, stealing confidential client
information (can you say felony?). He then proceeds to buy all of the
shares off of the individuals for their current depressed value. Then
he takes a drill bit and goes to the drilling site and strikes oil,
making himself into a millionaire. Isn’t that considered
conspiracy? Then he forces the crooked brokers (who recently received
news of striking oil) to pay him in cash. So, after swindling the
shareholders, conspiring to commit fraud, and extorting the money
from the brokers, Superman then proceeds to destroy the oil rig!
Unreal. What a “hero”!

Action
Comics No. 12: This guy needs some badass super-villain to show up, because
now the obviously bored hero takes on careless drivers. He smashed up
a defenseless used car salesman’s lot because he sells “accidents
looking for a place to happen.” The self-righteous piece of crap
also bullies a drunk driver, and then destroys an auto factory
because this company’s cars get into more accidents than other
companies. That’s okay, because Superman gets his in the end, as
Clark Kent gets a parking ticket because the police, frightened by
Superman’s unprovoked rampage, become Nazis and start cracking down
on people.

Action
Comics No. 13: Superman takes on the Cab Protective League, a sordid group
who bullies independent cab drivers. He forces them to take
sledgehammers and destroy their own cabs as restitution. Reynolds,
one of the guys involved in the Cab Protective League, is taken into
police custody. On the way to the station, he asks if he can smoke a
cigarette. The police say no problem. Oh, but there is a problem…it
is a cigarette that contains a “mysterious gas”. Of course, the
mystery to me is why didn’t this gas affect Reynolds. Did he get
immunized to the effects of said gas, or do I read too much into this
stuff? Reynolds takes off in the police car, which Superman tracks to
a cottage. Then Superman takes on his first super-villain…the
Ultra-Humanite, a cripple who is “the head of a vast ring of evil
enterprises”, and his brain, due to a scientific experiment, being
“the most agile and learned on Earth!” He has rigged up a voltage
line on the floor, which shocks Superman into unconsciousness.
Strapped to a table, he heads towards a buzzsaw. A buzzsaw which
shatters upon hitting his thick Kryptonian skull, and the shrapnel of
which stuck Reynolds in the throat, killing him. The Ultra-Humanite
escapes with his lackeys into an airplane, which Superman causes to
crash by slamming into its propeller. He searches the wreck, but he
got away. So let me get this straight: a guy in a wheelchair can get
up and walk away from an airplane crash? Oh yeah, somewhere along the
way, Superman develops super hearing and X-ray vision. All in all,
this was some pretty funny stuff.

Speaking
of affordable, here is another book in the Chronicles line, which
offers 192 pages of Golden Age goodness on heavy pulp paper in color
for $14.99. You can’t beat that with a stick! These stories are so
much fun to read, partially because they are quaint snapshots of
Americana, partially because they feature our hero doing things that
aren’t really heroic.

Action
Comics No. 14: The return of the Ultra-Humanite.

Action
Comics No. 15: Superman puts one million dollars of the money that he
swindled from shareholders in that oil rig scam from a previous story
to help save an orphanage.

Action
Comics No. 16: Superman breaks up a gambling
ring to help save a guy’s marriage. Superman No. 2: Larry Trent,
ex-boxing champion, has his suicide attempt interrupted by that
buttinsky, Superman. When asked why he tried to kill himself, he told
him that he was forced to throw a fight and was drugged and lost the
title and self respect. Superman’s answer to this problem is to
pose as him, and box his way back up to a title spot. The guy wins
his title back himself, and when his manager, who was in cahoots with
the mob’s betting rings, tries to drug him again, Superman forces
him to drink the drugs and causes him to overdose. In another story
in the same issue, Superman violates international treaties and goes
and retrieves a stolen formula that can create a gas that gets past
any gas mask. The last story is not noteworthy.

Action
Comics No. 17: The return
of the return of the Ultra-Humanite.

Action
Comics No. 18: A yellow rag drugs a
senator and takes pictures of him with another woman in an attempt to
blackmail him before his re-election. Superman gets wind of this, and
proceeds to smash the presses of the newspaper. He also develops
X-Ray vision in this story, although he still is not flying as of
yet.

Action
Comics No. 19: The Ultra-Humanite unleashes the Purple Plague upon
an unsuspecting city, and Superman saves the day again.

Superman No.
3: Superman saves the children at a crooked state orphanage. It looks
like a Little Rascals crossover, judging by their attire. The last
story is not noteworthy.

Action
Comics No. 20: The only interesting thing to
happen in this one is that Superman develops his super-breath to blow
out a torch. There are still no power of flight or Kryptonite as of
yet. According to the back cover, this book features the early
appearance of Lex Luthor. He must be the Ultra-Humanite, as there is
no one else in the book that could be him. We’ll find out in Volume
3, due out this August.

This
batch is cover dated February, 1940-Summer, 1940 (the title proper
was still quarterly at this point). See* above.

Action
Comics 21: The
Ultra-Humanite returns, but as a woman. Did I miss something?? Oh
well, I’m too lazy to go back and look to see if this happened
before or not. A scientist develops an atomic bomb, which Superman
warns against. Here we are, well over 18 months before we enter WWII,
and years before the Atom bomb, and they are writing about this
stuff.

Action
Comics 22: Clark and Lois are sent to cover the war in Europe.
Superman still cannot technically fly, but the way that he is drawn,
he may as well be flying. His ridiculous invulnerability is becoming
more and more apparent, as he shatters a plane’s propeller with his
bare hands.

Action
Comics 23: The antagonist behind the war in Europe is
revealed to be Lex Luthor, seen with orange hair here. He zaps
Superman with green rays which sap his strength, but there is no
explanation given as to why they do this, or what they are. This
could very well be the first appearance of Kryptonite.

Superman No.
4: Superman is still being referred to as the Man of Tomorrow. The
Daily Planet is mentioned for the first time here, no excuse being
given if the Daily Star was bought, folded, or whatnot. Lex Luthor
coins the phrase Man of Steel for the first time here, and it is used
often from here on out. Superman develops super-hearing to go with
his X-ray vision. In fact, he seems to develop new powers in every
story.

Superman No. 5: Alex Evell, a crooked politician, tries to
control information in Metropolis, first by buying one newspaper,
then by trying to buy the other. The moral, in Superman’s own words:
Two newspapers are better than one! Lex Luthor conspires to plunge
our country into another depression by controlling people of power
and influence with his own brand of incense. I am not making this
crap up. This stuff was passed off as serious action! Superman
develops yet another new power: the power to contort his face to
resemble another person. He also says up!—up! and seems to fly
away.

There are only ten Chronicles but the restoration done for the Archives goes well beyond that. It would not surprise me to see another Golden Age Superman Omnibus released with one of the upcoming movies, ditto a John Byrne Superman Omnibus. I predicted a George Perez Wonder Woman Omnibus some time ago.

I would LOVE to see DC use the Omnibus format the way that Marvel originally did- as an opportunity to defray the cost of remastering material with subpar restoration. Some of the linework in the early Archives is pretty rough and could be so much nicer using modern scanning techniques. Just a pipe dream on part.